Happy Weekend!
I hope you are well.
This is the first of a three-part trailer post (come back Friday and Saturday for more!) on a weekend which is pretty busy.
Today, there was a lot of festival news:
Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023 put out a call for entries!
London Film Festival 2022 announced their programme and films include Decision to Leave, Love Life, and Small, Slow but Steady.
Venice Film Festival is underway and interesting articles are coming out about Japanese films. Here’s a Twitter thread.
What are the first batch of films released this weekend?
This Child is Evil 
この子は邪悪 「Kono Ko wa Jaaku」
Release Date: September 01st, 2022
Duration: 100 mins.
Director: Sho Kataoka
Writer: Sho Kataoka (Script), Yuki Kobayashi (Original Story),
Starring: Sara Minami, Ryusei Onishi, Yuki Sakurai, Hiroshi Tamaki, Sakura Watanabe, Rina Sakuragi,
Synopsis: Shiro runs a psychotherapy clinic and has a happy family of a wife and two daughters including Hana. All is well until they get into a car accident that leaves Shiro with a leg injury, his wife in a vegetative state, and the youngest daughter with severe burns on her face. Hana has deep emotional scars. They are about to get deeper when she meets a high school student named Jun Yotsui, who says that his mother is insane and that he is searching for the cause of her insanity. Then! Her father brings back her mother when she wakes up from her coma and Hana senses something strange about her…
The Fish Tale 
さかなのこ 「Sakana no Ko」
Release Date: September 01st, 2022
Duration: 139 mins.
Director: Shuichi Okita
Writer: Shuichi Okita, Shiro Maeda (Script), Sakana-kun (Original Autobiography),
Starring: Non, Yuya Yagira, Kaho, Hayato Isomura, Amane Okayama, Hiroki Miyake, Haruka Igawa,
Shuichi Okita of The Woodsman and the Rain (2012) has adapted the autobiography of Sakana-kun, a fish expert who regularly shows up on those fish documentaries that get screened in cinemas.
It was co-adapted by Shiro Maeda who is worked with on A Story of Yonosuke (2013). Maeda also wrote and directed Kako: My Sullen Past (2016), and wrote Isn’t Anyone Alive? (2012).
It looks like it has the potential to be funny, not least since it has the stunt casting of Non in the lead role after she has put in stellar work in Hold Me Back (2020) and Ribbon (2022).
Other cast members include Kaho (Red), Yuya Yagira (Pink and Gray, Destruction Babies, Nobody Knows), and Amane Okayama (Poetry Angel).
Synopsis: Ever since elementary school, Mibou’s life is all about fish. He loves looking at them, drawing them, eating, them, and thinking about them. His father worries that he is different from other kids, but his mother watches over him warmly and gives her support. Even in high school, Mibou is all about fish and somehow, he gets on well with the delinquents around him. This ability to connect with others continues as he begins to live on his own and meets a myriad of people, all while being obsessed with fish.
Super Battle Junretsuger: No More Reheating 
スーパー戦闘 純烈ジャー 追い焚き☆御免 「Su-pa- Sento- Junretsuja-: Oidaki ☆ Gomen」
Release Date: September 01st, 2022
Duration: 75 mins.
Director: Hiroshi Butsuda
Writer: Hiroaki Kubo (Script),
Starring: Yujiro Shirakawa, Ryohei Odai, Kazuyoshi Sakai, Shota Gogami, Kiyoshi Maekawa, Ayako Kobayashi, Nao Nagasawaa, Mijika Nagai, Eri Fuse,
Some of the lead actors are members of Junretsu, a vocal music group whose members portrayed characters in tokusatsu shows, and they have a fanbase made up primarily of older women. They appeared on NHK’s Kouhaku Uta Gassen in 2018. They appeared in an earlier film a year ago.
Synopsis: Set one year after the events of the first movie, our public bath idol heroes are still fighting evil on behalf of the goddess of hot springs and their next battle occurs when traditional water reheating is forbidden and onsen and sento across Japan are turned into cold bathtubs. It turns out it might be connected to events surrounding team-member Shirakawa who has gotten involved with a new character named Emiri who is posing as a new goddess. A love triangle ensues and it looks like it can only be settled and hot spring water brought back with the aid of a new giant robot, Junretsuoh…
Toku Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru ~Setsugetsuka~ Hana no Maki 
特「刀剣乱舞 花丸」 華ノ巻 「 Toku Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru ~Setsugetsuka~ Hana no Maki」
Release Date: September 01st, 2022
Duration: 62 mins
Director: Sumie Noro
Writer: Yuki Nekoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Mitsuhiro Ichiki (Yamatonokami Yasusada), Toshiki Masuda (Kiyomitsu Kashu), Kousuke Toriumi (Mikazuki Munechika), Takuya Satou (Shokudaikiri Mitsutada),
Animation Production: Doga Koba
Synopsis: This is the third of a trilogy of feature films based on the popular anime “Touken Ranbu Hanamaru,” a nd after their summer vacation, the swordsmiths have a crisis as their time-space transfer device malfunctions and many are stuck in different time periods, from Heian to Edo!